Agenda item

RESOLVED:

That the proposals for changed financial arrangements for recycled waste with district and borough councils for 2018/19 to 2020/21, as outlined in the submitted report, be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The current system of financial transfers from SCC to district and borough councils has become unaffordable and no longer provides an incentive for further performance improvement.

The principles of the new mechanism have been developed in consultation with district and borough councils. They have been designed to give a reasonable degree of budgetary certainty whilst incentivising waste reduction and improved recycling performance.

The new financial mechanisms are projected to deliver a saving of £2 million for SCC in 2018/19, with a further £2 million split across the following two years.

[The decisions on this item may be called in by the Environment and Infrastructure Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member presented the report the explained changes to the mechanisms for waste-related financial transfers from Surrey County Council (SCC) to Surrey district and borough councils, and changes to the levels of funding over the next three years. There were no proposed changes to the kerbside waste collection services provided to Surrey residents resulting from these plans.

He explained that over the last few years, Surrey authorities had made significant progress in improving the delivery and performance of waste collection and disposal services. Surrey was now one of the best performers for waste management in the country, and all authorities in Surrey continued to explore options for how further improvements could be made through joint working. Part of this was to replace the arrangement whereby each district and borough was individually responsible for procurement of the disposal of its kerbside collected recyclable material with a new arrangement that benefitted from economies of scale and would deal with market volatility better.

In parallel to this, the current system of financial transfers for recycling from SCC to district and borough councils had become complex and unaffordable and no longer provided the incentive for better performance that it used to. For this reason it was proposed that a new system of financial transfers to district and borough councils for recycled waste be introduced from 2018/19 onwards.

The new system, which would replace all existing waste payments, aimed to allocate funding on a fair and equitable basis, whilst encouraging waste reduction, increasing recycling and reducing the cost of waste management to the taxpayer. Proposals for the new mechanism have been developed in close consultation with district and borough councils, and the Surrey Waste Partnership, and SCC was grateful to partners who had been involved in this work.

The new financial arrangements should be viewed as an interim solution, which would be reviewed as the plans for delivering greater joint working progress towards a single co-owned waste management approach, as previously considered by Cabinet in May 2016 and December 2016. A step towards this approach had already been made by four Surrey waste collection authorities who had created a new organisation called Joint Waste Solutions to manage their waste services. Some SCC waste disposal authority functions had also recently been transferred to Joint Waste Solutions.

The Cabinet Member concluded that there was significant scope for making further savings for the Surrey taxpayer by improving performance and changing the way in which waste was managed in Surrey. SCC remained committed to working with district and borough councils, via the Surrey Waste Partnership, to develop these new ways of working.

Mr Jonathan Essex spoke to this item and asked what if the expected results given in the report were not fulfilled and what would be the negative impacts?  He also made the following comments:

·         The increase in the council’s share of the waste cost was not as a result of recycling credits but the increased landfill tax,

·         Credits could be used to reduce costs by increasing the quality of recycled material,

·         With regards to reducing recycling incentives by £4m; there were step changes in recycling performance so should be step changes in reducing disposal costs.

·         He was happy that each area was to be looked at separately and explained that in Reigate, paper was collected separately from other dry recyclables.  By doing so Reigate earned more for recycling and were this to be rolled out across the county it could save the council £8m.

·         If there were negative impacts would this be re-considered.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport responded that boroughs and districts were on board with this proposal and he also believed that it would incentivise increased recycling.  He stated that views of Reigate and Banstead were not shared by officers across the county however, if after looking at the true cost of collection it was found to be a sound way forward then the council would consider that route.  He again praised the districts and boroughs for the good partnership working.

Cabinet Members spoke of some of the different ways in which recycling was done in various areas. 

RESOLVED:

That the proposals for changed financial arrangements for recycled waste with district and borough councils for 2018/19 to 2020/21, as outlined in the submitted report, be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The current system of financial transfers from SCC to district and borough councils has become unaffordable and no longer provides an incentive for further performance improvement.

The principles of the new mechanism have been developed in consultation with district and borough councils. They have been designed to give a reasonable degree of budgetary certainty whilst incentivising waste reduction and improved recycling performance.

The new financial mechanisms are projected to deliver a saving of £2 million for SCC in 2018/19, with a further £2 million split across the following two years.

[The decisions on this item may be called in by the Environment and Infrastructure Select Committee]